This invention is related to a single-use camera in which a film cartridge is accommodated in the camera when it is assembled, a photographic film is wound every time when a photographing operation is conducted, and the photographic film is displaced when the photographic operation is finished.
The single-use camera is a simple camera in which a film cartridge is accommodated in the camera when it is assembled, a photographic film is wound every time when a photographing operation is conducted, and the photographic film is displaced when a photographic operation is finished. For the film cartridge which is accommodated in such the single-use camera, for example, there is the one disclosed in the Japanese Patent Publication Open to the Public Inspection No. 75336/1994 in which there is provided a light-shielding cover instead of a light-shielding material such as velvet and a photographic film is drawn from the film path of the film cartridge by opening the light-shielding cover, opening the film path, and rotating the winding spool inside the film cartridge to the drawing direction.
Further, in the case of using a film cartridge equipped with a light-shielding cover at a gateway for a film, when the film cartridge is taken out in a daylight room after completion of photographing, the light-shielding cover needs to be in its closed state. In the course of handling in a photofinishing laboratory, an operator uses an exclusive jig in a daylight room to close the light-shielding cover through an operating portion to take the film cartridge out, after confirming from the torque of a film-winding knob that a photographic film is totally rewound in the film cartridge.
Because of the reason mentioned above, it is preferable that the operation section for closing the light-shielding cover is located at the position where the light-shielding cover can be closed promptly by the use of an exclusive jig in the photofinishing laboratory. However, if a user closes the light-shielding cover in the course of photographing, there is a fear that a photographic film is damaged or a camera fails to fulfill its functions.
Further, when operations of closing the light-shielding cover are forgotten for disassembling cameras in photofinishing laboratories, photographic films completed in terms of photographing are accidentally exposed to light, and a possibility of occurrence of such problems is very high in photofinishing laboratories where a large number of photographic films are processed in a day. What is worse, these operations are complicated and labor hours and a burden in photofinishing laboratories are increased. Therefore, the preferable is the constitution wherein a light-shielding cover is closed automatically after completion of photographing, and inventors of the invention accomplished an example wherein a detecting member which detects the last end of a film is provided, and an opened light-shielding cover is closed automatically by the detection of the detecting member.